Pease School Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This is the story of the Pease School Building in Travis County. Now, before a single brick was laid, before any schoolbell ever rang on this particular patch of Austin ground, the Republic of Texas itself set this site aside for educational purposes.

That was 1839. The republic had its eye on this land for learning, and that intention stuck. It would stick for a long, long time.

When the Austin Graded School House was finally dedicated on October 28, 1876, it rose up as something genuinely rare for its day. It was one of the first schools in all of Texas built entirely from public funds. Three stories of limestone.

Twelve rooms. Two hundred students. You can picture the place, solid and proud, standing there like it meant business, because it did.

They later called it West Austin School, and for a good stretch of years, that name suited it fine. Then came May of 1896, and fire has a way of rewriting a building's story. The fire badly damaged the school, and what might have been the end of it was not the end of it at all.

The building was rebuilt, two additional rooms added to the count, and here is the part worth pausing on: the original limestone walls were kept. They became the central part of the renovation. Those old walls just absorbed the whole new effort around them and kept standing.

In 1902, the school was renamed for former Governor Elisha M. Pease, a name it carries to this day. Then came more growth.

Additions in 1916 and again in 1926, the first by Austin architect Dennis R. Walsh, the second by Austin architect Hugo Kuehne. The result is what you see now, a brick and cast stone exterior in a simplified classical style.

From a republic's promise in 1839 to a limestone schoolhouse, through fire and rebuilding, through renaming and expansion, this site has been doing exactly one thing for a very long time. Educating. Turns out some promises, once made, are just too solid to break.

What the marker says

THE AUSTIN GRADED SCHOOL HOUSE WAS DEDICATED ON OCT. 28, 1876. THE BUILDING, ON THIS SITE ORIGINALLY SET ASIDE FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES BY THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS IN 1839, WAS ONE OF THE FIRST IN TEXAS BUILT ENTIRELY FROM PUBLIC FUNDS. THE THREE-STORY LIMESTONE SCHOOL CONTAINED 12 ROOMS AND SERVED 200 STUDENTS. LATER CALLED WEST AUSTIN SCHOOL, THE BUILDING WAS BADLY DAMAGED BY A MAY 1896 FIRE. IT WAS REBUILT WITH TWO ADDITIONAL ROOMS, WITH THE ORIGINAL WALLS FORMING THE CENTRAL PART OF THE RENOVATION. IN 1902, THE SCHOOL WAS RENAMED FOR FORMER GOVERNOR ELISHA M. PEASE. ADDITIONS WERE MADE IN 1916 AND 1926, BY AUSTIN ARCHITECTS DENNIS R. WALSH AND HUGO KUEHNE, RESPECTIVELY. THE BRICK AND CAST STONE EXTERIOR EXHIBITS A SIMPLIFIED CLASSICAL STYLE ARCHITECTURE.